The Man Who Cried ‘Filibuster Reform’
http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/the-man-who-cried-filibuster-reform/
Republicans will get yet another chance to block the confirmation of a totally uncontroversial nominee next week, when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid holds a vote on Richard Cordray, the would-be director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Readers may recall previous iterations of this story: In December of 2011, 45 senators, all Republican, voted against ending debate on Mr. Cordrays nomination. Death by filibuster. Mr. Cordrays credentials had nothing to do with those 45 nays; Republicans opposed him then, and oppose him now, because they dislike the federal agency that he would lead. (And it cant operate properly without a director.) As the editorial board once put it, banksbig campaign contributorsdont want robust consumer protection because complex and obscure products are lucrative.
Why Mr. Reid thinks hell have better luck next week is unclear, especially since, as Brian Beutler noted today, Republicans have pledged to filibuster and re-filibuster Mr. Cordray unless and until Democrats agree to weaken his agencys regulatory power. For weaken read kneecap.
Realistically, the only way Mr. Reid can get Mr. Cordray through the Senate is by changing the rules mid-session, and doing away with the 60-vote requirement to end debate on nominations i.e. through filibuster reform. Mr. Beutler said Mr. Reid may have alluded to that possibility.
But will Harry refuse to agree to filibuster reform until Jeb Bush is President? Why has he "kneecapped" the Senate?